QuestionMy ex was supposed to take over the car payment and take my name off the loan, but the creditor is still coming after me. Can they do that?

Answer

Yes, they can. Basically, creditors aren't subject to divorce court rulings because they're not parties to the divorce case.

A common misconception about debts in divorce cases is the "removing" of one or the other spouse's name from a community debt (like a car loan). It's not within the power of the divorcing spouses or the divorce court to relieve either spouse of their individual responsibility to pay community debts. Only the creditor can do that, and the creditor isn't likely to remove either spouse's name from the account just because they've gotten divorced.

As mentioned above, creditors don't have to abide by divorce court rulings because they're not parties to the case. Therefore, even though you may have a signed court order that makes your spouse responsible for a particular debt, the creditor can (and will) still legally come after you for the money owed on the debt.